WINNIPEG — On Sunday, the 18th offspring of that memorable 2003 marriage between Edmonton winter and Oilers innovation will enter the hockey world.

It will be yet another nod to the game’s romanticized dream; to the pond, sticks in the middle, chilblains, hot chocolate, tuques under helmets and a walk home in the dark. And yes, to hockey’s corporate reality. It sells tickets, draws TV viewers and sponsors. These games make money, just as the first Heritage Classic did on Nov. 22, 2003, at Commonwealth Stadium, staged on a budget of $3 million. Its major players — the people who conceived of the crazy idea and somehow pulled it off — worked without a net and left a template that has guided the National Hockey League through Winter Classics, Heritage Classics, Stadium Series and a Centennial Classic.

When the Oilers and Jets alumni hit the ice at Investors Group Field on Saturday, and the current Oilers and Jets do the same on Sunday, they will be paying homage to people like Patrick LaForge, Allan Watt, Nick Wilson, Doug Goss, Don Metz and others. Here are some of their recollections of the game that got it all going 13 years ago.

Patrick LaForge

Then: Oilers president

Now: Independent consultant

“We were approaching our 25th season and we had a plan for celebrating, but it wasn’t super. We were going to hijack the all-star game as part of our celebration. So we went to the all-star game in Los Angeles and it was, in our opinion, very poor. It was Los Angeles, lots of pink flamingos, fluorescent neon, and as I always say, Mats Sundin doing figure eights at centre ice. But it wasn’t hockey. And it wasn’t what I thought the all-star game could have been. So how do we bend it, make it more of a traditional event?

“On the flight home, we were noodling. I said I had picked up some knowledge in my beer (marketing) days about dreams of beer drinkers, and one of them was NHL players playing pond hockey. People said ‘wow, no helmets, break it out so it has more personality.’ That just led us to our game, which was really an all-star game kicked off by the legends of the NHL, played outdoors, and really just a great community gathering. We just built on that.”

Doug Goss

“Patrick asked me what are the chances we could raise some money to put the rink in place? It’s a fairly large undertaking. You had to put the ice plant in Commonwealth. I said, I don’t know, let me make some calls. I called the province to start with and talked them into giving us half a million dollars to put the infrastructure in place. So I said I think we can do this.

“We actually had no idea what we were doing. We didn’t know if we’d sell enough tickets, but we ended up having a lottery for the right to buy 15,000 tickets that were available after the season ticket holders bought theirs. If you recall, we had 700,000 lottery applications for 15,000 tickets.

“We pulled it off under trying circumstances. Unlike the games that go on now, that are planned a year in advance, we had four months to pull this whole thing together. It was a really, really tough go. We did it. Yeah, I have lots of pride in it.”

Eric Chaungeu, left and Ryan Steinke, right show how crazy fan are at the Commonwealth Stadium at the start of the Heritage Classic hockey game on Nov. 22, 2003.Ed Kaiser /
Edmonton Journal

Allan Watt

Then: Oilers marketing director

Now: Eskimos external relations and corporate projects

“When we started it, there was no handbook for outdoor games. Every single thing we did, including thinking about it and asking Gary Bettman’s office whether we could do it, was brand new. There wasn’t a template for it. That’s why it took us two-and-a-half years to bring it home, but it was worth it.”

The games drew 57,167 people, and they could have filled the stadium several times over. Watt remembers the sheer volume of requests to enter a lottery to win the right to buy a ticket.

“I’ll never forget it. You entered it through our friends at 630 CHED. At the time, they had offices that had racquetball courts in it. The racquetball court was up to your waist in applications for the extra tickets we had.”

Nick Wilson

Then: Organizing committee operations lead

Now: Oilers operations, new business

“It took a long time to get the NHL onside. They were worried about bad PR. It has proven to be hugely valuable now, but at the time, they were appropriately diligent.

“We anticipated the biggest challenge was going to be buy-in, including customers. I only once heard from one dissenter, that’s a dumb idea, I want to stay in my seat where I’m warm. That stuck in my mind because there only ever was one. So many people said this has potential or that’s going to be great.

“It was so start-up. The ‘how’ was a big factor. How to engineer an arched field with an irrigation system into a flat surface for a rink. How to moor in rink boards. How to run a huge header from somewhere we could hide the refrigeration noise out to the centre. We put piping in the sand. It became the equivalent of a cement floor. The sight lines, too, how to maximize the experience for as many people as possible but not have too many people way out of range or too low they couldn’t see over the boards.”

Kevin Lowe

Then: Oilers GM

Now: Oilers Entertainment Group vice-chairman

“It’s a huge event for the NHL now, and big revenue generation, big exposure. Whether they would have gotten there eventually or not, we certainly expedited the process. So that’s what I’m most proud of.

“There’s a handful of us that were the drivers of that whole thing. We were willing to go with or without the league’s permission, because there is really nothing in the league’s rulebook that says you have to play indoors. Not that it ever got there. The league initially was uncertain about everything, but they realized we had all our ducks in a row and this is something we’re going to do.”

The relationship between the NHL and the NHL Players Association was a bit frosty during that era, so the Oilers were proactive in speaking to their own players to get them on board.

“We said, quite simply, you guys have a chance to be part of history. No NHL game has ever been played outdoors before. Of course, Gretz was on board, though he wasn’t part of the organization, so it quickly got a life of its own.”

Craig MacTavish

Then: Oilers head coach

Now: Oilers senior vice-president of hockey operations

“The curse of the Heritage Classic is what I remember. Everything was great. We were off to an unbelievable start (at 10-7-2), playing really well. Everything looked good. We were playing Montreal and dropped the game (4-3), a game I thought we never would have dropped in regular conditions. And then it kind of started a downward spiral for whatever reason.”

He is nonetheless proud of the achievement.

“We seldom get the recognition for having the first game. It is definitely a source of pride for the organization. We had the first and it went off so well. What do they say? No greater form of flattery than duplication. It’s been a cool game ever since and a big part of the NHL.”

Frank Supovitz

Then: NHL vice-president of events

Now: President of Fast Traffic Events

“Allan Watt had gotten in touch with me. We had bid out an all-star game. Allan had a proposal to make, what if we do this game outdoors. I have to say the first reaction that I had was, this is never going to work, because it was an all-star game. They are not as fan-driven as they are hospitality opportunities for leagues.

“Fans are part of it but they are a smaller proportion of people in the stands. I felt at the time, for an all-star game, it would not be as great a hospitality opportunity if it was being held outdoors in Edmonton in February. There would probably be far fewer sponsors and broadcasters who came to enjoy all-star weekend. I let Allan know that. We parted friends. The proposal came, and it wasn’t something that I seriously considered moving up the chain to the commissioner. But a couple weeks later, I called Allan back and said the outdoor game opportunity is really intriguing, but what if we played it for two points instead of an all-star game. Allan’s response was, that’s funny, I was about to call you and suggest the same thing.

“We brought that up to Gary Bettman. He said if you can figure out a way to do it that it’s safe, it could be an incredible event and opportunity. So we spent a year investigating everything we could about the ramifications of doing an outdoor game on the professional level.”

Don Metz

Then: Organizing committee member

Now: Oilers Entertainment Group vice-president

“So many highlights, but I have to say the CF-18s breaking the 1,000-foot barrier, coming in at 280 feet and knocking the snow off the centre-hung speaker, and the massive fireworks at the end of the show. The streaker. There were just so many great things.

“What I was really most impressed about was the Edmontonians who stayed for both games in that cold weather and drank their slurpee beers.

“It was the first one. There was a lot to be proud of. It definitely was a pioneering venture, and I liked that I was a part of that.”

He also like the motivation behind it.

“Big reason was Commonwealth Stadium, what a great place to do something in, what a pity not to do something there in the winter. The whole notion of embracing the cold in Edmonton. We had been getting tired for years of the myths about our weather and how bad it is. We wanted to make sure we embraced the cold like we did in 1968 with Mukluk Mardi Gras.”

He thinks they hit almost all the right notes.

“I think if there was one thing I would have wanted to do better, it would have been to split the two games and make sure the alumni had its day and the NHL had its day. We didn’t know then. To put the two games on at once was a lot to take in and then you really minimized all the great content you could have had for an extra day. Not just for food and beverage, but the whole gala event, the whole weekend. I would have stretched it out a little more. But we didn’t know.

“If we were to do anything different, I would maybe price the tickets a little differently. You never know the value of the Beatles, of Gretzky and Messier and those guys. They bring a lot of weight.”

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